The sport of wakeboarding is very similar to the sports of waterskiing, kneeboarding, and tubing. A wakeboarder or person riding a wakeboard is towed behind the boat by a rope. Typically, waterskiing, kneeboarding, and tubing utilize a motorboat having a rope secured to a stern mount on either or both sides of the motor of the boat. However, in the sport of wakeboarding, a boat having an elevated tower is used and the rope is typically attached to a mount connected to a tower cross member.
The mount on the tower provides a much higher connection point for the tow rope and provides vertical component force on the tow rope held by a wakeboarder that allow the wakeboarder to more easily perform aerial stunts and maneuvers. That is, the wakeboarding experience is improved by use of a tow point that is elevated as compared to the lower elevation of tow points used for waterskiing. Typically, due to the forces exerted on the tower during towing of a person for wakeboarding and the like, rigid, unitary tower structures are utilized.
However, the presence of an elevated tower structure is undesirable when towing and storing of the boat. Accordingly, what is desired is a tower structure that can be folded to an unelevated configuration, but having a locking structure that is able to maintain the tower in an elevated configuration for use. Various folding tower structures are known, but improvement is desired in the mechanisms for locking the tower in an elevated configuration while permitting folding of the tower as may be desired for transport or storage of the boat with the tower.
The disclosure advantageously provides easy to use folding leg and latch structures. The structures enable convenient locking and unlocking of the legs without the use of tools and without removable pins and the like that are often difficult to remove and are often lost.